Some thoughts on writing comedy

[John Dean]

In addition to my crime fiction, I make the occasional foray into other genres, including humour. But how do you write humour? Well, here are some suggested rules:

The first thing to remember is that humour is subjective. What is funny to one person may easily leave another cold.

The best approach is write in your own style in the way that pleases you, because if it makes you laugh then there will be a whole audience out there with the same sense of humour as you who will plug right in to what you're offering.

Write humour that will appeal to a wide range of readers by choosing subjects that have universal interest. For instance, think of the trials of life: growing up, the childhood and teenage years with their growing pains and foolishness, married life; the workplace, growing old. All have a wide appeal.

It is important to remember that your reader must laugh WITH your characters and not at them. Taking your characters through embarrassing, unfortunate, even dangerous episodes requires that the reader feels sympathetic towards the character whilst at the same time laughing at the situation in which they find themselves.

Finally, don’t force it - weave the humour in with your writing. Do a funny line and move on – if the reader did not laugh first time, they sure as Hell won’t laugh second time around!

You can buy my effort, The Diary of Ridley Pinstripe (based on a fictional minor business executive), at

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diary-Ridley-Pinstripe-get-up-go-ebook/dp/...